The present invention relates to telephone technology, and more precisely, to a method and a system for providing connections by means of intelligent network services.
A telephone system comprises in the basic form thereof that the user selects a number, by means of which it is possible to reach another telephone user. As he/she answers to the telephone, a speech connection is established between the users. The telephone system includes also a lot of services. Eg. when calling to numbers beginning with certain numbers, eg. 0800, 0900, 800, 900, it is possible to use the services either without any charges from these to the user (toll-free) or they may be priced to have a price which is higher than the normal price for a telephone call (premium rate).
A requirement to both support and to produce various services has taken the development of communications networks towards so called intelligent network (IN). An intelligent network may be defined as an architecture which can be applied to the most of the communications networks regardless the used network technology. The object thereof is to create, control and manage teleservices providing surplus value. One special feature of the intelligent network is to be able to provide modular operations which are independent from the used service and which can be linked to each other as components when creating new services, whereby the definition and designing of new services will become easier. A further special feature is that the provision of the services is independent from the telecommunications network. The services are separated from the physical network structure which is disposed at the lowest level, and thus it is possible to distribute them.
CCITT (International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee) has defined so called Intelligent Network Conceptual Model (INCM) of the intelligent network in the recommendation CS-1 (Capability Set 1). The model consists of four levels, each of which represents an abstract view of the possibilities offered by the intelligent network. The second highest level in the model is a Global Functional Plane, and it includes the view of the intelligent network as Service Independent Building Blocks SIB, from which desired features of a service and desired services are assembled by the use of a service logic. This level also comprises a Basic Call Process BCP, which covers the whole network, and a Point of Initiation POI and a Point of Return POR between the BCP and the SIBs.
Calls to the service numbers are routed to a call routing database which is called as service control point (SCP). The used numbers are usually domestic numbers. The caller may inquire account information, receive information about products and services of a certain company. When a call with a certain prefix is called, the call is directed through telephone exchanges and service switching point (SSP) to the SCP by using common channel signalling. Usually the number of the desired service is attached to the service number, whereafter it is possible to connect the call to the particular service in question. This number is called as C-number, which the subscriber usually does not know.
It is possible to adapt the intelligent network architecture to the most of the network types. It is characteristic for a multiservice network ISDN (Integrated Digital Services Network) that the user may utilize several communications services either separately or simultaneously. Different applications, which consist of a terminal device, a group of terminal devices, a multiservice switch, a local network, another private network etc., are connected to the ISDN by a limited user access group. The ISDN network enables the development of the conventional telephone to form a part of a multiservice terminal, such as a combination xe2x80x9ca telephone + a PCxe2x80x9d, which enables simultaneous transfer of speech and data.
The ISDN interface between the user and the network comprises various types of channels which can be used between the subscriber and the network for information transfer purposes. A B-channel is a channel operating at a rate of 64 kbit/s and provided with timing and used for transferring all kinds of information, eg. by different manners coded speech or data. A D-channel, which has a transfer rate of either 16 kbit/s or 64 kbit/s, is primarily intented to form a signalling channel for the circuit switched connections. Different channel structures and ISDN user accesses are provided by combining the channels. A basic access has a 2B+D structure and a basic system access has a 30B+D structure. By using basic access one or several terminal devices are connected directly to the ISDN network whereas the basic system access is used for connecting large switches and local networks to the ISDN network.
At present, it is possible to connect local area networks to each other by the ISDN at a rate of 64 kbit/s, but this speed is, however, not enough for transferring large data records or for transferring graphical applications. The shortcomings of the ISDN networks are eliminated by networks which use asynchronous transfer mode ATM as the channeling method. Many of the large computer networks are based on the ATM technology.
In the above and in the following there are some certain definitions, which may require clarification. A network operator is an organization which operates the physical communications network. The system manufacturer is an organization which has designed and provides the communications network to the network operator. In Sweden Ericsson is this to Telia. In the Netherlands Ericsson and ATandT are this to the Dutch PTT. A user is an agent/a customer/a subscriber/a person/an organization which can use the services of the communications network. The user is often the same as the subscriber. A service provider is a person or an organization which offers the service to one or several users. At present the service provider is usually the same as the network operator, but the service providers may also be users of the services provided by the other service providers. Each user of the telecommunications network uses the network mainly for the purposes of communication with the other users. In order to enable the user to use the functions of the network, eg. to establish a call, the user has to connect himself, ie. become a subscriber, to the services available. If the user wishes to use the basic functions of the system, the user needs then to connect to the proper basic services, and if the user wishes to use the supplementary functions of the system, the user must connect him/herself to the proper supplementary services. A service is a function which is thereafter executed towards the user of a certain operation. The service request is activated eg. by lifting the telephone headset off from the hook.
Each of the basic functions and the supplementary functions is a code executed by computers in the telecommunications system. When using activation of the desired supplementary service it is accomplished by a jump instruction in the code of the executed basic function.
At present the telephone is an essential part of the operation of eg. the mail-order companies. The mail-order companies have service companies (Call Centers) which have up to several hundreds of persons receiving the calls. At present the telephone sales person (the agent) is almost without exceptions situated within the premises of the service company, especially in cases where there is a need to be in contact with the database when receiving the order. To ensure the quality of the service, various kinds of auxiliary devices have been developed, such as computer programs, by means of which it should be possible to predict the number of calls per time unit to be expected and also the expected average length of the calls. The service level is also an essential matter to eg. mail-order companies, since according to the studies the customers will try to make a call once or twice only to order the products. The likelihood that the customer will call for a third time after receiving a busy tone in the number is extremely low. In addition, the companies cannot often afford to maintain the telephone service after the normal working hours, since the arrival of calls to order something is then more uncertain and occasional.
It is possible to substantially decrease the aforementioned problems by increasing the number of the persons answering in the service company. In case the service company has a greater amount of personnel for answering and calls to be answered, the distribution of calls will then be more even and the amount of calls called to a certain service does not cause an essential decrease in the service level. The modern call center solutions are, however, intented each for one company only, and thus a telephone sales person may sell products of this particular company only. The access to the databases of a certain company is usually possible in the premises thereof only, which sets some further limitations.
A continuous problem in these solutions is the costs and the maintenance of the service level. A need of the modern age is a possibility to work also remotely from home. As there is no access from home to the databases of various companies, products of a certain company have been the only ones to be sold by a single telephone seller, or then he/she has needed to go to some office, where there are several telephone sellers in the same premises.
The slowness of the home connections and the limitations in the products available for the sales has caused that this kind of activity has not been extremely lucrative. To obtain the database connections after receiving a telephone call from the customer has taken some time, which has meant delays in the customer service and substantially long telephone connection times, which has cost a lot, and on the other hand loaded the telephone network.
In addition to the procedure in which the customer calls to order, the sales person may also call to the customer, and may thus in this case already have an immediate connection to the database. However, the customer may not have time for the discussion.
When selling products of several companies, a disadvantage of the present arrangements relates also to the possible difficulty in addressing the charging of the costs of the telephone connections to that precise companrany whose products are sold by the sales person. In addition, separate alternative customer directions, customer/subscriber identity, network, SCP and subscriber billing information is utilized in controlling and routing of the calls. This all may cause difficulties in the administration of the services.
The customer wishes to be satisfied by different criterias of the service level. One extremely important criteria is how long it will take before the telephone sales person answers the call. If the answering time is too long, the customer experiences a drop in the service level. If the customers are kept on a hold (queuing), the telephone costs may increase. The lost call may, finally, have effects to the selling result provided by the particular service, if the customer does not call again, and even complains of the bad service further.
It can also be said that due to traffic jams the outwork at home, or remote work, has become as a lucrative alternative. To enable this the method and arrangement according to the present invention solves the problem in a new and unambiguous manner.
According to the present invention, a system and a method is disclosed for utilizing telephone communications and data transfer connections by means of an intelligent network service.
The invention concerns further to provision of a handling system for call routing and a data transfer, and more precisely to provision of a handling system for call routing between the customer and the agent and a data transfer system between the agent and the service provider company by using public telephone network and an intelligent network.
The invention concerns further to provision of an almost real-time use of databases of a company, said use depending solely on the timing of the connection between the customer and the agent.
The invention concerns further to a provision of a possibility for the agent to use various applications of different service providers.
The present invention provides a method for providing a data connection between an agent and a database of a company to which a calling subscriber desires to make a contact and a speech and/or data connection between the agent and the calling subscriber as the subscriber calls to a service number of a predefined service provider. According to the invention the call is directed to a services switching point of an intelligent network, from which the information concerning the call called to the number is transferred to a services control point, a free agent is reserved in the service control point on basis of a table, an information is given to provide connections to the service switching point, a data connection is established from the database of the desired service provider to the agent, and a connection is established between the caller and the agent.
In addition, the present invention provides a system for providing a data connection between an agent and a database of a company to which a calling subscriber desires to make a contact and a speech connection between the agent and the subscriber as the subscriber calls to a service number of a predefined service provider. Said system consists of an intelligent network including a services switching point for transferring the call into the intelligent network. The intelligent network includes further a services control point for reserving a free agent on basis of a table implementd into a database of the intelligent network. To provide the necessary information for the connections to be established the following information is transferred to the services control point of the system: the database of the provider of the desired service, means enabling the communication connection of the agent, the dataconnection to be established between the agent and the database, and the speech connection to be established between the agent and the subscriber.
The additional features and advantages of the invention are evident from the description and the drawing.